Although the dollar amounts are small, the fight is the latest example of the trend toward crankiness in the advertising world. Legal attacks against clients used to be considered risky, because they bring unwanted negative publicity and are thought likely to scare off potential clients. But now, exasperated by increasingly fickle clients, ad agencies are losing their historical reluctance to fight back. For example: D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, part of closely held MacManus Group, sued former client Gateway Inc., alleging that the computer makerowed the agency money. J. Walter Thompson, owned by Britain's WPP Group, slapped former client Dell Computer Corp. with a breach-of-contract claim after it got dumped.

Hot water

Neither Foote Cone nor its parent, Chicago-based True North Communications Inc., would comment on their dispute with Mazda, disclosed in True North's lOK annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mazda executives, who were in transit from the New York Auto Show, couldn't be reached for comment.

Foote Cone landed the Mazda account in 1971, and went on to popularize the old Mazda slogan "Passion for the Road." Both parties later got into hot water with the Federal Trade Commission and some state officials after they ran car-leasing ads in 1996 and 1997 that the FTC considered misleading. Mazda's US subsidiary, along with the US divisions of several other car companies, eventually settled with the FTC. In early 1998, Foote Cone and a group of other ad agencies settled with the FTC as well. As part ofthe settlement, the agencies agreed to stop putting upfront car-leasing costs in a blur of televised fine print, but didn't admit to any wrongdoing.

Additional claims

But the issue apparently hasn't gone away. According to True North's filing, Mazda initiated a complaint before the American Arbitration Association in Los Angeles in December 1997, seeking ``indemnity and reimbursement for liabilities'' arising from the auto-lease advertising aired in 1996 and 1997. According to the filing, Mazda has ``informally indicated that it will seek indemnification for costs it may incur to settle or defend additional claims which may be asserted by the FTC and various state attorneys general.''

For its part, Foote Cone has filed a counterclaim in the arbitration to cover ``unpaid commissions for planning and placing advertising during the final months of FCB's relationship with Mazda,'' the filing said. The filing says an arbitration hearing is planned for January 24, 2000. Foote Cone resigned the Mazdaaccount in the summer of 1997, after parent True North acquired rival ad company Bozell Jacobs Kenyon & Eckhardt.

Although conflict-of-interest policies on Madison Avenue often allow agencies to handle one domestic and one foreign car account, Chrysler insisted Foote Cone resign the Mazda business, because rival Ford Motor Co. has a stake in Mazda. Mazda's new ad agency, closely-held Doner of Southfield, Michigan, won the Mazda account in November 1997.

Doner has since unwrapped a new slogan for Mazda-``Get in. Be Moved''-and has been running arty-looking ads featuring jarring images and special effects. A recent commercial for the Mazda Protege shows four 20-somethings car-pooling in a Protege while listening to funky music. As they drive down a city street, weird images crop up and then crumble.

The Asian Wall Street Journal